ħaikus

Pino and Isabelle are eloping in Poland, Wrocław to be precise. They rent a car, and drove all the way to Poland for a last minute getaway. He’ll be back tomorrow evening.

I’m starting hating for how much he travels!

This is what the recorded voice in the St Petersburg metro says whenever the doors are closing.

And with this sound in my mind I came yesterday back to Berlin
For my last evening there I went by metro to the Автово (Avtovo) metro station which is the most impressive and decorated of the entire system. In fact, there was even a group of Russian tourist on my train who went that far just to take a look at the station. Unfortunately renovation works didn’t give me the chance to take any good picture, you can anyway read the description on wikipedia and see a great picture here.
Later I went to the Vasilevsky Island to cross again the Neva at sunset and enjoy the nice view of the island itself as well of the Hermitage. The night was colder than ever and a very strong and cold wind was blowing, which is why I went to a coffee house to recover and drink a tea. When the bridges opened I went out to say goodbye to my beloved city and take the last pictures
Walking back to the hostel I wanted to buy a bottle of vodka for my guests in Berlin, but sadly the shops yet open 24/7 are not allowed to sell alcohol from 11pm to 7am. I decided then to buy the vodka and the delicious honey sold in the shop next to the hostel only the next morning.
At the hostel, 3am, I met two guys from Boston. One of them wore a funny t-shirt (you can buy here)

There are 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary, and those who don’t

They’re on a big European tour: Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Berlin, Amsterdam and… Switzerland. Switzerland? Anyway… My English is all but perfect, but at least I don’t say Hermit-age!

Short post.
I’m alive.
I’m back in Berlin.
I have to clean my flat.
Desi and Isabelle messed it up to tease me.
I will post later the last updates about my trip.
I want back to St Petersburg!!!
Aaargh!

This is my last (whole) day in St Petersburg and probably the last post to be written here. Next updates will be done either by ilGrisa (if important) or in Berlin tomorrow evening.

These tears I’ve cried
I’ve cried 1000 oceans
And if it seems
I’m floating in the darkness
Well, I can’t believe that I would keep
Keep you from flying
And I would cry 1000 more
If that’s what it takes
To sail you home
Sail you home
Sail you home

Bridges
Yesterday I went out at midnight to see again the bridges opening. I may look quite stupid to do more or less the same tour every night, but that’s so amazing! I mean, it’s just a couple of bridges that open up for ship traffic, there’s nothing really special in that. But there is! If I could only explain in words what it feels to watch them in the night when the sun still enlightens the streets and the river… Aaargh! I know I will never be able to make you understand… You should experience it by yourself I guess, you’ll be not disappointed. Yesterday was anyway a little bit stranger than usual because the weather was rainy and St Petersburg was surprisingly cloudy dark: my eyes were delighted
At the hostel I met an Australian girl who had some troubles in booking a trip to Berlin. She first booked a train but it travels through Belarus which requires a transit visa she doesn’t have. I suggested her then to book the direct flight I will fly tomorrow, but it was too expensive or to travel by bus to Tallin and then with EasyJet from there to Berlin, maybe spending a day in the wonderful Estonian capital. As far as I know she got the train ticket refunded and she will spend a night in Tallin tomorrow or so.

Alexander Nevsky Lavra
Today it was still very rainy and I went to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery where some important Russian people are buried (Dostoevsky among them): what a beautiful and peaceful place!
From there I went to the souvenir market close to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood where sellers were so friendly! Obviously they were continuously asking me to buy something but as soon as I said in Russian that I couldn’t speak that language, they started to talk with me more confidentially (surprised by my good pronunciation ). A girl from Ukraine told me a lot of thing about the communist propaganda and she asked me to move to St Petersburg with her
Later I went to the Kuznechny Market to look and smell fruits, fish, spices (dill was everywhere): a really nice experiences for my senses.
Unfortunately I’m really tired: I walked around a lot in the past few days, I experienced a lot and I really need some rest now, mostly because once back in Berlin I have a lot of thing to do, to manage and to think about.
I had a great time here in St Petersburg (my longest trip alone since my InterRail in 2002) and once again, like 5 years ago, I could find myself, understand who I am, what makes me what I am.
Спасибо

A little update Pino prayed me to post:

I was resting waiting for midnight, when I heard someone retching in the restroom. In my whole evilness, I prayed all the gods and goddesses for they were the couple of lousily unpleasant Italians. My prayers were heard! One was bitching the other not to drink so much! Mitici

Vodka
Yesterday I spent all the evening at the hostel because today I had to wake up quite early to catch the bus to Novgorod.
A Russian guest had dinner on the common table while I was (trying to) watch TV and he offered me a glass of vodka. Obviously I refused, since I’m teetotaller, but he insisted and eventually I had my shot. На здоровье!
Vodka doesn’t taste bad, but I could appreciate it better if ice-cold…

Novgorod
This morning I woke up at 7 to catch one of the frequent buses to Novgorod. Once at the bus station I bought my ticket and I waited 45 minutes for my bus. The driver was quite unfriendly and eventually explained that the big 1 on the ticket was my place on the bus I simply didn’t realize before that there was an excellent booking system!
My place was right behind the driver and I could see how difficult was for him to change gear: for the slowest he had even to turn off the bus I thought we could never be able to drive 3 hours that way…
At half past noon we were in Novgorod: I checked the time for the buses back to St Petersburg and I walked down to the kremlin.
I was expecting a city to visit instead of a well preserved set of ruins, but the excursion to Novgorod was anyway really worth it: miles away from the bustling St Petersburg, Novgorod is quiet and relaxing, almost abandoned. I met a lot of tourists though: French, Italian and German .
On the way back I caught (how high are the chances?) the same bus driven by the same driver but at least this time I knew how to behave…
The way back was a bit longer because of some car accidents on the road: when I left Novgorod, indeed, it was raining and here in St Petersburg is quite wet too.
Now I’m relaxing at the hostel, waiting to go out again later to watch the bridges opening.

Because somebody complained about my last posts being written almost entirely in Russian, I’m writing today without using any Cyrillic alphabet, starting from the title, once again named after a song. I might finish up this post with the official Russian names later in Berlin, this should give me also more time to write instead of searching on wikipedia their right spellings Btw, I chose a famous song by the Rolling Stones (who will be here next month, whoohoo!) mainly because of these lyrics:

I stuck around St Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the tzar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain

Moscow Station
Yesterday I went first to the Moscow Station (named after the city where the trains that depart from here are going to) to check whether I could find a morning train to Novgorod. Obviously nobody there spoke English but with a bit of luck and my limited knowledge of Russian I managed to understand that the morning train is local, departing at 8 o’clock and the tickets are sold at the local train desk on the day of departure. I eventually decided to take the bus, despite my love for trains, because they’re cheaper and more frequent.

Smolny
After the Moscow Station I went to the Smolny Cathedral in the homonymic district. Who complains because the UN headquarter in NYC or the Park Güell in Barcelona are too far away from their nearest metro stations, has never been at the Smolny Cathedral The long walk was anyway worth it: the district is very quiet and pleasant, almost no tourists and with a nice mix of Soviet and Slavic styles: exactly what I love. At the far end of a long avenue the blue cathedral by Rastrelli: so photogenic at sunset!
Walking back to the metro station I noticed two statues representing sphinxes, I had a look on the guidebook and found the description Sphinx Monument… Was it not supposed to be somewhere else? Mmm…

Петя, Петя!
Oh come on! Don’t say I promised no Cyrillic in this post! I can’t talk about yesterday night without writing this!
My idea was to have a dinner in Downtown, which is why I traveled by metro to Gostiny Dvor where I hardly found the way out with all the people there. I thought they were going to the concert for which a stage was build in front of the Hermitage, but… I didn’t imagine how many people were on Nevsky Prospekt until I realized it with my own eyes! Wow, it was amazing! Suddenly I didn’t feel sad anymore because I missed the CSD in Berlin
I eventually had my dinner at Yolki Palki (whose Mongolian version I went in Moscow is far more delicious) and then I had a walk to the Neva with all the people screaming Петя, Петя! (Peter, Peter!) or something else that sounded like I’m proud to be Russian.
Beside the concert at the Hermitage and another on the Vasilevsky Island, the city organized fireworks and some other spectacles: it was very interesting.

New Leningrad
After a long night spent on the Neva banks I woke up today quite late and I went to the southern suburb of the city, where Stalin planned the New Leningrad, far away from the tzarist monuments along the river.
I could see then an overwhelming building of perfect Socialist Classicism behind a huge statue of Lenin: the House of Soviets. The buildings around are also very Stalinist and I enjoyed that view as well as I like walking down Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin.
Close to those monstrosities is the small Chesme Church built to commemorate the Russian victory against the Turks at Chesme: astonishing.

Crime and Punishment
I left the southern corner of the city to go back again to Sennaya Square: with the daylight there is no substantial difference Apparently the square doesn’t own only two souls but is more or less also divided in two: the southern part looks much more full of homeless than the northern side…
Anyway, from there I started my Rodia-tour, following the character of the novel by Dostoevsky. Unfortunately, although I found all the places marked on the book (Raskolnikov’s flat, Dostoevsky owned the flat and the house where the pawnbroker lived and was killed,) none of them were open to the public. The locals were maybe too pissed of by visitors Too bad. I felt anyway part of the novel, mainly because the places were exactly how I depicted them in my mind.

As planned I woke up today quite early to catch the hidrofoils to Петродворец (Petrodvorets) the Versailles of St Petersburg.
I expected a nice trip with a slow boat on which I could have taken pictures of the city, but a hidrofoil is a hidrofoil: fast and with seats only under deck Oh, yes, of course also expensive.
At the harbour of Petrodvorets I could see the gorgeous palace, orned by majestic cascade, with waterworks and golden statues, which is the main attraction of the park. I was never in Versailles or Reggia di Caserta, but this was fantastic.
I could say too fantastic : even if the Grand Palace was completed by Catherine the Great, it doesn’t surprise me that Peter preferred to spend time in the Monplaisir Palace: closer to the sea and more intimate.
Also remarkable are other small fountains with funny tricks and originally decorated (the one that looks like a tree for instance, with a bank to watch at it where one suddenly gets wet sitting on it ).
Now I’m back in St Petersburg trying to recover after that long visit beneath a hot sun. Later I will check at the Moscow Station whether I can travel by train on Monday to Новгород (Novgorod).

Yesterday evening I wanted to escape a little bit the traffic and the pollution of the city and I went to the Елагин остров (Yelagin Island) a huge park which looks like the Tiergarten in Berlin, full of couples in love and groups of drunk Russians.
My visit there didn’t start very well because I lost myself trying to follow the walk tour suggested by LonelyPlanet (I still don’t understand where the sphinx monument or the peter’s tree are) but it was really worth it.
I could finally find some peace strolling through the park but, most important, when I took the metro to Васильевский остров (Vasilievsky Island) I could see the city at its most beautiful (mmm, actually St Petersburg is always at its most beautiful): crossing the Neva at sunset (read: 11pm) when the sun enlighten the Hermitage and all other buildings on the river. Gorgeous.
What I didn’t like was a fountain in the middle of the Neva which was animated by some music: this is something too kitch, unforgivable even for the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen.
I went back to the hostel quite soon yesterday because I planned an excursion today and I had to wake up early.

Because the weather this morning was almost cloudy I decided to visit the two most important museum of St Petersburg: the Hermitage and the Государственный Русский музей (Russian Museum).
The first one is housed in the Winter Palace, a masterpiece of Italian architecture, while the second… well, it’s a nice example of Italian architecture too
Until this morning I didn’t know whether my favourite museum was the MoMA in New York City or the MNAM in Paris, now I’m absolutely sure it’s the Hermitage in St Petersburg… I didn’t visit the whole collection because I can’t stand Egyptian mummies anymore, but the section dedicated to the impressionism and post-impressionism is unrivaled! I had creeps and I was crying, almost suffering while I watched some masterpieces by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse and Кандинский (Kandinsky)… Luckily the usual Picasso’s shit took me back to the reality…

Later I went to the Russian Museum which is focused on, guess what, Russian art and Russian artists. I didn’t spend much time there because I had a look only at the modern, cubist and surrealist part. It was really interesting anyway: Kandinsky (again, he’s the best), Малевич (Malevich) and Петров-Водкин (Petrov-Vodkin) were my favourites.

After a quick lunch at the Чайная Ложка (teaspoon) where I had delicious pancakes and tea I went to the Витебский вокзал (Vitebsky Rail Terminal), the terminus for trains to/from Berlin. The train station is very nice: it looks like a small version of Stazione Centrale in Milan.